Waiting
by coffee dazed
Summary: Annie waits on the other side. one shot.


** Waiting**

**Disclaimer: **I don't anything to do with 'Being Human'. I'm just borrowing it and I make no profit.

**Note:** just what I think Annie might have seen on 'the other side'.

* * *

_**Surname: **__Sawyer_

_**Forename:**__ Anna_

_**Middle Name(s): **__Clare_

_**Age:**__ 22_

_**Place of Birth: **__Bristol_

_**Occupation:**_

The pen in Annie's hand had hovered over this question as she was unsure of what to put. Her last job had been as a bartender but did it count if she had been technically dead at the time? Looking uncertainly around at the other people in the waiting room, she'd decided to leave it blank. Everyone present had worn anxious expressions on their faces, nobody making eye contact for longer than a second or two. They had all been allocated a number by taking a ticket from a dispenser by the door, much like the ones you found at a deli counter, and took a seat until their number came up announced by someone over a loudspeaker.

On arrival, each person had been given a form to complete according to the circumstances of their passing through a door. In Annie's case, the situation was complicated to say the least – she had rejected her original door, escaped being passed through two more doors and finally been exorcised through a fourth. The forms were handed over to a receptionist before being passed to an office where shadowy figures could be heard whispering, presumably about each 'candidate'.

* * *

When her number had finally been flashed on the screens, a whistle had sounded – a shrill sound that had been painful to her ears – then the figure of a man appeared to point her towards another room. Annie had tried to speak to him and ask what was to happen to her, to them all, but they never spoke to anyone. They just pointed.

Into the next room and the atmosphere was the same – nervous people all just… waiting. Those who had newly arrived had tried to talk to each other about what might happen to them, there had been whispered rumours about disappearances but nothing confirmed. However, such talk had quickly stopped as large, intimidating men who reminded Annie of some very mean bouncers ordered silence. In this waiting area, it was a buzzer system that sounded when a number appeared on a screen and that person simply vanished when a bell rang. No sign of where they had gone or even how – just 'pop' and they were gone

She paced the floor, pulling the long cuffs of her jumper down over her hands as she tried to comfort herself. The wait in the first room hadn't been very long but in this second one, she had sort of lost track of time. Each room was lit by harsh strip lights and they glowed with a bluish tinge that had started to give her a headache.

Taking a chance, she left the room and wandered down a hallway as she looked for some kind of sign, something to tell her what was happening. Sounds of talking had drifted to her ears and she followed the noise to a room where there were monitors on the wall and people talking through them to who she supposed were friends and loved ones.

* * *

She watched for a minute until she saw a motherly-looking woman finish talking and turn to walk away as the monitor went blank. Annie decided she had nothing to lose by approaching her.

"'Scuse me, what, um, were you doing just then?"

The woman looked a little puzzled at first then her expression cleared. "Oh, you must be new here."

Annie let out a self-conscious giggle. "Uh, yes, I guess so."

"It's just a communication room, well, that's what they call it anyway. Lets you contact people you want to say final goodbyes to before the last time your number gets called."

Annie smiled at thought of being able to see George and Mitchell one last time. "How does it work?"

"Hmm, not sure of the exact details but the way I do it is just thinking of the person you want to see and they appear on the screen. Is there someone special?"

The young woman looked shyly at the other woman. "Yes, my best friends."

"Good luck then," the woman smiled kindly. She began walking towards the final waiting room when Annie dashed after her.

"Wait, uh, do you know where it is we go? You know, after the last bell?" She was scared of not knowing what waited for her at the end and maybe this nice lady would be able to provide her with the answer.

The older woman shook her head and gave a little shrug. "I haven't the faintest idea, love. I just hope that there's lot of tea and biscuits and the chance to still watch a bit of Corrie, if nothing else."

Annie's heart sank at the reply and she turned a little dejectedly to the free monitor. She looked to see what other people were doing and saw that they didn't appear to need to touch anything – just a look of concentration on their faces.

She closed her eyes and formed an image of the werewolf and vampire. She painted in as much detail as she could – the way George pushed the frame of his glasses up his nose and the slightly startled look he always seemed to have, the way Mitchell seemed to have those fingerless gloves surgically attached to him and the soft lilt of his voice.

* * *

It didn't take long for her two best friends to appear on the screen and Annie gasped when she opened her eyes. There was Kemp, his arm around Nina's throat and brandishing a bloodied stake while George looked on helplessly. Behind him, she could see Mitchell kneeling on the ground next to a dying Lucy Jaggat, a pool of blood spreading rapidly around her body. The threat was more than clear to the ghost and she wasn't even thinking when she ran out of the communication room. She didn't know how she knew but she could sense a door forming even as Lucy Jagget's life was fading fast and Annie fully intended to take advantage of it.

When the door had fully formed, Annie waited for it to swing open before 'popping' in front of the now-disarmed Kemp, grabbing him by the front of his shirt and tie and dragging him to the 'other side' just as he had done to so many other unwilling victims.

Nevertheless, while she had saved the lives of her friends, the administrators of the waiting rooms had been extremely upset by the appearance of Kemp and her actions of bringing him there. She had been informed by them, through the receptionist, that there were no forms to cover an event like the one she had caused and that the consequences for her could be severe. There had been no warmth or sympathy on the ghostly receptionist's face and Annie had been left not just thoroughly berated but also terrified of what those 'severe consequences' might be.

She had been shaking and teary when she ran back to contact George and Mitchell again and check that they were alright. Annie had tried to keep her composure as she spoke to them but she now had a nagging feeling of constantly being watched where before there had not been and she kept looking over her shoulder. The door of the second room had been left open and she paused in her conversation as she watched yet another person disappear seconds after a bell rang. Her hands reached to touch the screen, to try and feel some physical contact.

Annie treasured the precious seconds she had been able to see and speak to her friends but over her shoulder, she saw the receptionist appear and beckon her to return to the waiting room.

"I…I have to go but… Please, don't forget me, will you?" she lowered her hands and stepped back, letting the image of her friends fade.

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**x**


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